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Comment by quantumwoke | Hacker News Reader

I've been microdosing psilocybin daily for the past six months during quarantine as a bit of a cognitive experiment. I feel a lot more switched on and focused in my work. Reading these posts I wonder what other diseases such as Parkinson's, seizures, PTSD, depression, anxiety have yet to be studied and require more research. Can anyone speak to this? Anything else I should add to my stack?

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> I've been microdosing psilocybin daily for the past six months [...] I didn't get COVID and I feel a lot more switched on and focused

You lost your causation vs correlation sense though :)

he's now fully quantum

Nailed it.

A lot of the "I did this and it had great effects" are compounded with "I did this and it ruined my life" and a bit of "I did this and it ruined my life and everyone around me". I suspect the human mind is tailored to promote the first outcome and stick it's fingers in its metaphorical ears about the last two outcomes.

Turns out we need actual formal studies and even those aren't necessarily conclusive so it's best to err on the side of caution.

Good evidence that big doses work: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/026988112091995...

I’m sure that is caveated on some people and for some conditions. I’d expect a better standard and more research to be defined here or we’ll end up with another paroxetine mess on our hands.

I lost a decade of my life to cleaning up after that mess and that was just a family member’s encounter with it.

What is factual is that things are invariably more complicated than they look when it comes to human minds.

Look up “study 329” for an example of complexity.

> I suspect the human mind is tailored to promote the first outcome and stick it's fingers in its metaphorical ears about the last two outcomes.

It's more complicated than that. Plenty of people hear the bad outcomes and stick their fingers in their ears about the good ones. The subject of recreational drug use is a particularly good one for eliciting this behaviour, both for and against.

The interesting questions are how people in the same society get primed for one reaction over the other, and how we can individually avoid this behaviour and approach controversial topics with an open mind.

And (although I think you kinda said this), different people may respond in different ways.

This sounds too much like Billions season 5 episode 7. Uncanny. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtJNljm1pVs

Is that clip indicative of the quality of the show?

Currently, yes. The first season was _much_ better, and there has been a decline (at first steep, then gradual and consistent) with each season since then.

This was the last episode they aired due to COVID-related production shutdown. They're supposed to finish this season and do another, but I wonder if the show might just shut down quietly at this point.

It was initially based on a true story described in the book "Black Edge". It just kept getting more and more outlandish once they ran out of source material.

The self-reported positive effects hallucinogens are awful.

They alter your perception so your perception of perceived benefits is unreliable, and anyone who's not tripping can tell you that. I mean, with full doses the reported benefits are things like connecting with the thread of the universe and speaking across planes to dimensional beings that inform you that we're all one, but the word fractal is jammed in there somewhere. I'm not saying these people can't have fun, but pulling THAT experience back to just reduced levels of the drug is probably still going to give terrible accuracy for self reported results.

Microdosing reminds me of those people who left high school parties saying it was fine because they drive better drunk, or that they took some coke to balance it out.

Microdosing implies non psychoactive dose. It would be more like people who left after drinking one beer because they were not under the influence.

Furthermore, how can you be certain that you sober perception is more accurate than the altered one? How can you be certain that the effects of microdosing are even comparable to full doses? I am not making claims either way, just asking.

Here's my personal anecdote: I took acid once (200ug sublingual), and realized that I need to clean my apartment and brush my teeth more often.

I'm not a very spiritual person, and I don't have a strong desire to 'connect with the thread of the universe'. But I'm very curious and happy to try things, if I can convince myself they're reasonably safe.

That was a few weeks ago, and I'm happy to report that my floor is noticeably cleaner and my teeth cared for =)

I could try to claim other less measurable and subjective benefits, but that wouldn't be very honest with myself after only a couple weeks, and I doubt you'd believe me.

If someone is impaired to drive they are by definition not microdosing. The equivalent to alcohol would be like a quarter of a beer.

>> I feel a lot more switched on and focused in my work.

Quarantine alone can do that for some people. Shutting out the world is a requirement to focus on deep work. Same reason Joel Spolsky says software engineers need offices with doors.

Not saying you're wrong, just that you cant separate out this obvious factor in your experiment.

I started microdosing psilocybin since 3 years, sometime every day, sometime once every 1 or 2 weeks. When I take it the morning, I am very focused on my work, but also I am less stressed and anxious. I had a Tinder period with lot of date and psilocybin really help to build confident with women.

Do you take the psilocybin specifically before the date? Or just in general, the microdosing has made you better with women

Every morning of the day of the date, but surely in general too, I feel like upgraded in every field possible with a long terme cure.

Yeah I tried for the first time. Was roughly 300mg? For the first hour I was a bit off, but then it cleared and I felt very straightforward and open emotionally all day. Could definitely see it being useful for a date.

What's your dose, is it extract or raw material?

It is raw dried B+ magic mushroom, I mix it to obtain a powder. I don't know the exact gram of dose, it is about between 0.5 and 1.0 cubic centimeter of powder

Interesting, when I was microdosing LSD I was much more social: less social anxiety, more outgoing and more friendly. (A nicer person, as far as I can tell!) Also I was able to consistently keep an early bedtime for the first time in my life.

The most interesting effect for me was that it became impossible to procrastinate. (I normally spend 99% of my time procrastinating.) I would go on YouTube or Reddit but the whole time I was just consciously aware that I was trying to distract myself from something... so in the end it was easier to just go ahead and do the damn thing to get it off my mind. Very productive time for me.

Same here, I am a a big procrastinator, ang with microdosing I am constantly doing something and if I can't find some task to do then I became very angry, I am very rarely angry without microdosing.

Nice to have such a steady access to psilocybin. Why not LSD, by the way?

> I've been microdosing psilocybin daily for the past six months, [...] I didn't get COVID.

Made me laugh.

Isn't the tolerance to LSD built way too fast for daily (micro)usage over half a year?

Not sure what other people are using, but I've worked up to about 64mcg/day.

100mcg is usually a full dose. Usually micrososing is 1/10th of a typical full dose so 10mcg. Your tolerance is already quite high if you're at 64mcg/day and not actively feeling any tripping.

Yes, same as psilocybin. When you microdose you are not supposed to get psychedelic effects. The supposed benefits come from prolonged presence of the molecule in the body. Similar how antidepressants work, the point is not to take one tablet once.

The effects of microdosing begin on consumption and end on discontinuation. They do not build up and fade slowly. Tolerance and breaks are frequently discussed.

So, it's not about the effect of a prolonged presence.

> Why not LSD

At least this [1] suggests that LSD microdosing doesn’t do anything, while there have been a few studies that suggested psilocybin micrososing does. Dunno how strong the evidence is in either direction but that would make me more inclined to start with psilocybin if I were to experiment myself.

[1] https://www.gwern.net/LSD-microdosing#conclusion

I can testify that LSD microdosing does something.

Something that couldn’t also be accounted for by placebo? I guess it’s impossible to properly control for that in a non-blind test. What kind of effect are you experiencing and how strong (if you don’t mind)?

Easier to grow in the cupboard :)

What size micro dose?

Personally, I've concluded I cannot be productive with even as little as 100-200mg of cubes.

mcg, I presume. But 200mcg is a really high dose. 10-20 would be a microdose for most. I hope you test your stuff and have the right potency because your comment doesn't sound right.

They’re talking about milligrams of cubensis mushrooms (cubes) not micrograms of LSD.

My bad, tracked the wrong parent comment by mistake. I thought he was talking about consumable microdose lsd cubes. Makes alot more sense now.

5-7 mg. 10mg verges on a perceptual dose for me.

Lots of questions; top 2:

How did you get started?

Is there a reasonably safe (both medically and legally) way to source it?

1. Going into this, you need to research a ton. 2. Know someone that sells it. Or look for a field for them and go hunting. Or grow them, spores are legal and you can buy everything you need online.

There are many places online that will ship spores where it is legal to have spores. Many places discussing it, too.

Lion's Mane mushroom is being marketed by Stamets

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